Central concerns overcome as Mayo banish Rossies
Mayo’s Tom Lydon breaks away from Roscommon’s Diarmuid O’Higgins. Picture: David Farrell Photography
For long stages of this game, a Mayo win looked extremely unlikely. The sides were level at half-time despite Mayo playing with the wind in the first-half.
Much more than that, Roscommon were utterly dominant at midfield in the first-half and in the first ten minutes of the second-half, that didn’t change.
With that platform, it seemed only a matter of when, not if, Roscommon were going to make the break for the victory.
Mayo only won three out of 18 kick-outs in the first-half and lost five of the first six restarts in the second-half.
The achievement to that point was that Mayo only ever trailed Roscommon by one point. With such a poor primary possession platform, their stellar forward line was able to keep Mayo in the game. But there was only so long Mayo could stay in the game on a ration of crumbs with the likes of the towering Niall Heneghan, Cathal McKeon and team captain Eoghan Carthy so on top in the middle.
But all changed utterly in a five-minute spell from the 41st to 46th minutes.
Kobe McDonald converted a ‘45 to level the game at 1-9 to 0-12 (converted after Andrew Quinn’s brilliant run and shot was superbly saved by Patrick Gaynor) when Mayo finally won a breaking ball.
It was Crossmolina’s Josh Moyles, who was moved from left-half back to midfield at half-time in a bid to stem the tide, who came up with the break. It led to a superbly-taken Darragh Beirne point to put Mayo into an unlikely lead and it had a transformative effect on the team.
Suddenly, whereas Mayo had been passive and meek on kick-outs, they were like men possessed with the bit between their teeth. Team captain Colm Lynch had been relatively quiet to that point but he led the charge. He won the next kick-out. Darragh Beirne had a goal chance snuffed out but Tom Lydon pointed a subsequent free after the lively Thomas Tuffy was fouled. Roscommon won the next kick-out but Mayo turned them over in defence thanks to Tuffy – such defensive turnovers were a regular pattern throughout the hour – which ended up with a Lynch point off his weaker left foot.
Andrew Quinn broke the next kick-out to Tom Lydon and Mayo surged forward. Darragh Beirne played the final pass to Oisín Deane whose finish to the net was emphatic.
Suddenly, it was 2-12 to 0-12 and the whole complexion of the game had changed. Lynch won the next kick-out, leading to a converted Beirne free and Mayo’s awesome spell had yielded 1-5 in five minutes. Joey Holmes had Mayo 2-14 to 0-12 clear on 52 minutes.
“I wasn’t overly concerned about the wind, it was just the kick-outs and how we were playing, just very passive, standing off, not getting to the break zones,” said Mayo manager Keith Higgins afterwards. “The few times we were able to get turnovers in contact, we were able to breakaway and get scores from it.
“I don’t know was it Kev (McLoughlin) or Drakey (David Drake, both selectors) that mentioned to me at half-time, the more we have the ball, we will win the game, we just have to get our hands on it and that kinda proved in the second-half.
“You go through that team, the likes of Tom (Lydon) and Darragh (Beirne) and Kobe (McDonald) and these boys in the forward line, you give them enough ball and they’ll cause damage. Oisín (Deane) nice and quietly goes out and gets two goals. There’s great footballers out there but you cannot play football without the ball,” he added.
That should have been that but Roscommon, who looked impressive in many facets of their play, stirred themselves for a late revival.
Substitute Dean Casey – a member of the St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen side who reached the All-Ireland Senior ‘B’ final last month – was central to it.
Casey was named to start but only came on in the second-half and made a profound difference.
He struck two points, Charlie O’Carroll pointed a free and then, in the 59th minute, Casey struck the net brilliantly following a pass from Conor Grogan. It was now 2-14 to 1-15 and squeaky bum time.
Conor Meaney did superbly to get off a short kick-out to Thomas Tuffy and he worked the ball to Kobe McDonald on the left sideline fully 70 metres from goal. McDonald sensed the importance of the moment and took off on a surging run, fouled just outside the arc. He nonchalantly converted it for a vital two-pointer. Panic over.
Early doors, Mayo opened very well and an exceptional Oisín Deane goal had them 1-4 to 0-1 in front. It was a goal made almost entirely in Crossmolina – there were five Deel Rovers in the starting team. It commenced with a Josh Moyles turnover. Claremorris’ Darragh Beirne was involved too before Kobe McDonald played an exquisite handpass to Deane which was almost as good as the finish.
It meant Mayo scored 1-4 from their first four shots (a Darragh Beirne two-pointer in there with a single from him and McDonald) and they needed to be that economical. Their possession woes were already apparent and by the 21st minute, it was 1-4 to 0-6 with corner-forward John Curran proving particularly hard to handle for Mayo.
Mayo could have had a second goal. Only a point looked on but Kobe McDonald saw a different picture, only to see a thundering shot rebound off the post with goalkeeper Patrick Gaynor beaten.
As it was, Mayo only scored two points in the final 20 minutes of the half, through Darragh Beirne and Joey Holmes. Defensively they did well and Roscommon will be disappointed with the amount of shots they got off in the first-half (just one more than Mayo) considering their midfield dominance.
Little changed immediately after the break and Josh Moyles might have been a bit fortunate to escape with only a yellow after he hurled himself through the air in the direction of Niall Heneghan. Whatever about intent, Moyles was airborne and therefore out of control. It could have been construed as dangerous.
Soon, Mayo and Moyles took flight and Roscommon had no answers.
It’s two wins from two for Mayo with a trip to Leitrim tomorrow and a home game against Galway the following week with a top of the table spot and progression straight to the Connacht final within reach.
Scorers – Mayo: Oisín Deane 2-0-0, Darragh Beirne 0-1-4 (2fs), Kobe McDonald 0-1-3 (1 tpf, 2 ‘45s), Joey Holmes and Tom Lydon (1f) 0-0-2 each, Colm Lynch 0-0-1.
Roscommon: Dean Casey 1-0-2 (1 mark), Charlie O’Carroll 0-1-2 (1 tpf, 1f), John Curran 0-0-4 (2fs, 1 mark), Eoghan Carthy and Ruairí Kilcline 0-0-2 each, John McGuinness 0-0-1.
Mayo: Conor Meaney; James Lavelle, Tom Lambert, Aaron Coggins; Colm Lynch, Rio Mortimer, Josh Moyles; Shane Cunningham, Andrew Quinn; Kobe McDonald, Dylan Flynn, Oisín Deane; Darragh Beirne, Joey Holmes, Tom Lydon. Subs: Thomas Tuffy (for Cunningham ht), Dara Neary (for Flynn 55).
Roscommon: Patrick Gaynor; Diarmuid O’Higgins, Nikita Birzins, Michael Gillooley; Colin Murray, Eoghan Carthy, Keelan Kelly; Niall Heneghan, Cathal McKeon; Conor Grogan, John McGuinness, Eoin Collins; John Curran, Ruairí Kilcline, Charlie O’Carroll. Subs: Dean Casey (for Kilcline 42), Kevin Hester and David Higgins (for Collins and McKeon 51), Stephen Tighe (for Curran 59).
REF: Ronan Hynes (Sligo)
Dalata Connacht U20 Football Championship - Round 4
Wednesday, April 8
6.30pm in Páirc Seán Mac Diarmaida
Leitrim v Mayo
